Publications by authors named "Marta Lopes Lima"
Article Synopsis
- Chagas disease and leishmaniasis are widespread in Latin America, and current treatments are insufficient, making natural products, particularly from the Amaryllidaceae family, promising for developing new therapies due to their antiparasitic alkaloids.
- The study aimed to test the anti-parasitic effects of five natural isoquinoline alkaloids isolated from Hippeastrum aulicum against different stages of Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania infantum, using both in silico and in vitro methods, as well as molecular docking techniques.
- Results indicated that haemanthamine and lycorine were the most effective against both parasites, with additional promising activity shown by 7-methoxy-O-m
The antileishmanial activity of a series of ()-2-(heteroarylmethylene)-3(2)-benzofuranone derivatives, possessing 5-nitroimidazole or 4-nitroimidazole moieties, was investigated against Leishmania major promastigotes and some analogues exhibited prominent activities. Compounds with IC values lower than 20 μM were further examined against L. donovani axenic amastigotes.
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- Leishmaniases can present as mild skin infections or severe, life-threatening diseases, and current treatments mainly rely on chemotherapy, facing challenges like side effects and drug resistance.
- Cyclobenzaprine (CBP), a muscle relaxant approved by the FDA, has shown promise against Leishmania in lab settings, but its mechanisms were not fully understood until this study focused on its impact on energy metabolism.
- The research found that CBP significantly disrupts energy production in Leishmania, causing cell damage and making it a promising candidate for repurposing as a leishmanicidal drug due to its relatively mild side effects.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as visceral leishmaniasis (VL) present a limited and toxic therapeutic arsenal, and drug repositioning represents a safe and cost-effective approach. In this work, we investigated the antileishmanial potential and the mechanism of lethal action of the antidepressant escitalopram. The efficacy of escitalopram was determined ex-vivo using the intracellular Leishmania (L.
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- Chagas disease and leishmaniasis impact over 20 million people in developing countries, with current treatments being toxic and in need of safer alternatives.
- The study synthesized 27 marine alpha-pyrones and tested their effectiveness against the parasites causing these diseases, revealing several compounds with significant antiparasitic activity.
- Among the tested compounds, one (3-tetradecanoyl pyrone) showed promising results in reducing T. cruzi infection in mice while demonstrating no toxic effects.
Membrane targeting peptides toward antileishmanial activity: Design, structural determination and mechanism of interaction.
Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj
November 2017
Article Synopsis
- Leishmaniasis, a disease affecting impoverished populations, necessitates the development of new drugs, particularly antimicrobial peptides, as existing treatments are prone to resistance.
- This study focused on designing a new peptide, DecP-11, which was validated and tested for its effectiveness and cytotoxicity both in vitro and through molecular interactions with cell membranes.
- Results indicated that although DecP-11 showed strong cytolytic and membrane-permeabilizing activity, its effectiveness against Leishmania parasites was reduced due to potential aggregation, highlighting the need for further structural modifications to enhance selectivity.
Background: Major drawbacks of the available treatment against Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) include its toxicity and therapeutic inefficiency in the chronic phase of the infection, which makes it a concern among neglected diseases. Therefore, the discovery of alternative drugs for treating chronic Chagas disease requires immediate action. In this work, we evaluated the mushroom in the search for potential antiparasitic compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The leishmanicidal action of tricyclic antidepressants has been studied and evidences have pointed that their action is linked to inhibition of trypanothione reductase, a key enzyme in the redox metabolism of pathogenic trypanosomes. Cyclobenzaprine (CBP) is a tricyclic structurally related to the antidepressant amitriptyline, differing only by the presence of a double bond in the central ring. This paper describes the effect of CBP in experimental visceral leishmaniasis, its inhibitory effect in trypanothione reductase and the potential immunomodulatory activity.
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